Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Keepongoing]

in our university we have an assessment process which places students in their various classes. In most cases a student's speaking ability will have more proficiency than their writing.

I am now in the middle of a class where for midterms I had the students do an observed dialgue in pairs.

This was quite interesting and I was quite embarrassed.

It became apparent that my more quiet students were quiet because they did not understand and because they did not have the language proficiency for the level they were placed in. This is a Level 2 class where I have a few students who speak at a lower proificiency than do any of my Level 1 students. I have one student who is at an advanced level, she talks about surface relationships etc. The other students do not understand her and in the dialogue she could not understand her partner because her partner's English was so broken.


It is obvious that this problem was not properly addressed by me.

I am sure it is apparent to every teacher out there, but I should have caught this early on.

I can not really move students to other levels but I can be more senstive to their needs.

For now on I will not rely on the original placement assessments and will do my own assessment in the early days of the class.

In my reading and writing classes I do my own writing assessments, give them a 1-3 and record, this way I can better grade them based on their effort and progress.

anyway this is my confession

[Dispatched]

It's alright my son, we all make mistakes...

now say 10 Hail Marys and leave 20,000w by the altar as you leave.

God bless.

[desultude]

What can you do if you do evaluate your levels?

In my conversation class I have many levels, but have no way to resolve the problem. It's made worse by the fact that I must grade on a curve. Aside from in class participation and attendance, I have no way to even the playing field.

Good on you for caring. I am interested in what you think you can do to resolve the problem.

[matthews_world]

Sounds like you need to scaffold instruction. Lower students need more information. Use a sort of rubrick system in your grading.

Give the higher students more pieces to the puzzle and have them actually be English coaches to the less advanced students.

I would just give them dialogues that you could work on in class. Check esl-lab.com for scripts. Have them write alternate scripts on the topic.

Just some ideas.

[turtlepi1]

Not the best situation for the prospective of student learning but it solves the problem of the "stupid" normal curve marking system that some/most(?) unis in Korea are "required to/choose to" use.

You will have a nice spread.

I'm in the UAE and they toss around normal curve distribution and I have to tuck my head down so as not to get it chopped off. I'm not teaching ESL these days, but teaching IT courses to EFL students. The IT courses are mostly competency based so how the heck do you get a good curve. If you get a good curve in a comp. based system chances are you are a lousey teacher or the prescreening placements suck.

To make matters worse here are the grade bands.

A: 90-100
B: 75-89 (look at this range)
C: 65-74
D: 60-64

And the unofficial rule is no marks within 2 points of a grade boundary.

[Keepongoing]

it is almost a no-winner, if I spenf the needed time, in class, on the lowers LEPS, the more advanced ones will get bored. If I meet the advanced at a place that challenges them then the lowers ones are lost.

Role-plays solve this a bit, but you can't only do role-plays.

One thing is grade for particiaption and this is the area where I will throw in effort and even the field a bit. That is why I will begin doing my own assessment at the beginning and mark them. I will grade their progress as part of their participation score. My participation score involves actual participation, also effort and attitiude.